How do you like your steak. In our house, my carnivore boys all prefer rare steaks but I’m more of a just slightly over medium person. Getting it right can really make or break a good meal and even spoil the steak.

To help make sure we enjoy the perfect steak every time, Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) has launched a new guide to help consumers across the UK to select and cook the perfect Scotch Beef PGI steak, just the way they like it.

Scotch Beef PGI

‘Steaks – Your Perfect Guide’ features useful information on the different cuts available and the best way to cook and complement steaks with recipes for sauces, butters, rubs and marinades as well as sensational sides.

Perfect Steak

From sirloin to ribeye and feather blade to fillet, the guide explains the unique qualities of each cut and advises on the best way to cook them ensuring a perfect steak every time.

“Whether you’re a cooking connoisseur or a complete beginner, the ‘Steaks – Your Perfect Guide’ booklet offers a range of delicious recipes with plenty of handy hints and tips to ensure your steaks are always cooked to perfection,” said Graeme Sharp, Scotch Butchers Club Manager, QMS.

“The handy guide is free from Scotch Butchers Club shops who also have expert staff on hand to share advice on choosing cuts and serving suggestions,” he said.

Scotch Butchers Club

The guide helps promote the Scotch Butchers Club, which is run by Quality Meat Scotland and has around 300 member butchers nationwide. The butchers are committed to sourcing and clearly identifying top quality Scotch Beef, Scotch Lamb and Specially Selected Pork from approved suppliers.

Consumers should look for the Scotch Butchers Club logo in butcher shops as it ensures they can buy with confidence, knowing that the butcher has sourced their Scotch Beef PGI from selected, quality assured, high welfare farms.

Marine Harvest, Scotland longest established salmon farming company hooked up with five talented Scottish chefs in the Kitchen Theatre at this year’s Scotland’s Salmon Festival to demonstrate a range of healthy and nutritious Scottish salmon dishes.

I was delighted to be there with the chefs, chatting about their dishes and of course the top quality Scottish Salmon being used in the demonstrations.

The country’s no 1 food export proved that it was a the ideal healthy quick cook ingredient for mid week family meals with chefs demonstrating the versatility of salmon in a range of different dishes and cuisines.

With salmon being hailed as the ultimate healthy fast food, the chefs delivered range of quick easy and exciting meals for family dining, along with a few more simple but impressive dishes for special occasions.

Tomatin Whisky and tonic cured salmon prepared by Chef Chris Bond took inspiration from the Distillery’s, Tomatin and Tonic, a twist on a gin and tonic, using whisky instead of gin.

Combining salmon with lemon, dill and a few aromatics produced a stunning and elegant dish; perfect as a starter or a light lunch.

Chef Mark Heirs used Loch Ness gin to cure salmon for his Gin cured salmon with a warm beetroot salad and again, produced a salmon dish that showed the elegance of a whole salmon side as a centre piece for a special meal.

Mark was also keen to demonstrate the versatility of salmon for quick and healthy mid week family meals, all guaranteed to be on the table in less than 20 minutes.

These included, salmon with chorizo and lentil stew and salmon and tomato stew with fennel salad.

Quick and easy to prepare was also the theme for Inverness chef, Alfie Little’s dishes.

His roast salmon with a spicy broth and salmon and seafood in a bag were both cooked up in under 20 minutes again endorsing salmon’s well earned label of the ultimate fast food and demonstrating its versatility with different ingredients and flavours.

MacDonald Hotels chefs, Kat Wardrope and Ed Blackhall brought a touch of culinary elegance to the table with two showstopper salmon dishes.

Impress your dinner guests by cooking Kat’s vibrant salmon, beetroot buckwheat, smoked beetroot and lime crisp. The dish has a few elements that can be cooked ahead, meaning less time slaving in the kitchen and more time to relax.

Food loving locals were given lots of tips including how to get that crispy, crunchy skin when cooking salmon and advice on the best pans to use when cooking salmon at home – stainless steel or non stick? With a range of top quality non stick pans provided by Stellar Kitchenware and Judge Cookware being put to the test by the chefs, the Stellar Rock Titanium pans and Stellar Radiant were clear winners.

Scottish rapeseed oil producer, Summer Harvest Oils generously provided their cold pressed oil for the demonstrations and all chefs agreed that using Scottish rapeseed oil was the perfect choice for pan frying salmon.

Download the Marine Harvest Recipe App for fantastic Scottish salmon recipes including some of those cooked in the Marine Harvest Kitchen Theatre.

Seafood is very popular in the Wee Pinch of Sugar Kitchen and Seafood Week has been a great opportunity for sharing new ideas about cooking with fish. The Fish is the Dish website has been a hive of activity with tips on how to cook fish, recipes and some fantastic competitions.

On days when I don’t have fresh fish available, one of my favourite go to dishes is a sardine pasta made with tinned sardines. And, although fresh fish would be my first choice; tinned fish is certainly not inferior, the quality is as good as fresh fish, and its just as healthy and also very economical. Depending on your budget, you’ll find a good variety in the shops, including some very good sustainable brands.

I find canned seafood great for making quick and healthy meals. There’s a great selection to chose from including, salmon, tuna sardines and mackerel and you’ll also find these with with added sauces including tomato, lemon, mustard or BBQ. Tinned fish is packed full of health giving nutrients, especially omega 3 (except tuna as the omega 3 is lost in the canning process), which has been shown to have so many health benefits. These healthy fats are good for our brain, our heart and can also have a role in maintaining a normal blood pressure. Health experts currently recommend we eat two serving of fish a week, one of which should be an oily rich fish. So, given that a tin of sardines with soft bones provides around half of an adults daily calcium requirements, it’s definitely worth considering tinned fish as part of your weekly diet.

Seafood Week Day six ‘Fish of the Day’ was sardines and although fresh sardines are in season, this recipe is an healthy and economical dish for packing in some essential omega 3. It’s also ideal as an easy dinner for one or a quick midweek meal for a busy family.

This is one of my go to recipes when I need a quick meal and its one of my favourites for an easy midweek meal.

Sardine Pasta

Print Recipe

Tinned sardines are a great standby to have in the storecupboard and are ideal for whipping up a quick healthy meal. This pasta dish cooks in the time it takes the pasta to cook; ideal after a busy day and so economical, much better than a takeaway. Have the sauce ingredients prepped first and in no time you'll be sitting down to a tasty meal.

Tinned sardines are a great standby to have in the storecupboard and are ideal for whipping up a quick healthy meal. This pasta dish cooks in the time it takes the pasta to cook; ideal after a busy day and so economical, much better than a takeaway. Have the sauce ingredients prepped first and in no time you'll be sitting down to a tasty meal.

TV presenter Andrea McLean was set loose on a top Scottish sheep farm this week to learn more about Scotch Lamb PGI production and lend her support to a major campaign to encourage more Scots to eat lamb.

During a day of “lambassador” activities with Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), Andrea visited a flock near Galashiels and spent time with Graham and Kathleen Lofthouse at Bankhouse Farm, the current Scottish Sheep Farm of the Year.

She then joined a group of top Scottish bloggers for a session in Edinburgh cooking some of her favourite Scotch Lamb dishes to help raise the profile of quality assured Scotch Lamb and highlight QMS’s on-going “Wham Bam Lamb” campaign.

During the interactive session at The Edinburgh Cook School, busy mum-of-two Andrea – who is a huge fan of lamb – shared her top tips on creating nutritionally balanced meals which are tasty enough to appeal to the whole family.

She confessed: “Juggling appearances on Loose Women and the hectic social lives of two kids means, as a family, we can’t always dedicate the time we’d like to creating laborious meals in the kitchen so it’s great to have a go-to ingredient which is quick and easy to cook.

“Scotch Lamb is perfect for ensuring we can rustle up great, versatile mid-week meals and, as it’s packed with protein, iron and vitamins, it keeps our family’s diet balanced and my mind at ease.”

During her visit to Bankhouse Farm Andrea also learned more about the quality assurance, traceability and animal welfare standards which underpin the iconic Scotch Lamb brand.

The Lofthouse family run 439 ewes and 72 calving suckler cows on around 300 acres of land in the Scottish Borders and, during her visit, Andrea also tried her hand at rounding-up sheep, with help from the farm’s working collie, Kip.

“Andrea is a great ambassador for healthy eating and as she’s already a fan of Scotch Lamb, it’s been fantastic to be able to give her a better understanding of the commitment involved in the production, from farm to for,” said Carol McLaren, QMS Head of Communications.

“Scottish farmers are justifiably proud of the Scotch Lamb they produce and QMS is working hard with the industry to communicate just how quick and easy lamb is to cook. Andrea did a great job of helping us to share that message with the influential foodie mums who took part in the cooking session with her,” she added.

Research from IGD found that 70% of the target shoppers agreed that Scotch Lamb PGI is ‘produced to a higher standard’ and 60% agreed it is ‘the best available’ after the 2016 “Wham Bam Lamb” campaign.

Last year’s successful campaign also saw identified Scottish origin sales of lamb in Scotland increase by 10.5% in value and command a retail price premium of 11%.

Now in its fifth year, QMS’s campaign hopes to further establish lamb’s credentials as an ideal staple for the weekly shopping list.

Food Waste

Food waste will be huge problem this Christmas and now is the time to start thinking ahead and have some ideas for using up the Christmas leftovers.
Collectively, people living in Scotland could save more than £90 million¹ by not wasting food this festive season. That’s a saving of £38 for every household in Scotland.
With 50,375² tonnes of food and drink expected to be binned in December, Scots are being encouraged to shop smart and save money simply by avoiding food waste.
According to figures from Zero Waste Scotland the equivalent of over 700,000 wheelie bins full of food is expected to be thrown away this month.
In December alone Scots are expected to throw away over 3.5 million mince pies, more than 240,000 Christmas puddings, and the equivalent of over 100,000 turkeys³. Using these items up – or not over-buying them in the first place – represents a potential saving of over £3 million.
Action to tackle household food waste has already seen the amount generated drop by 6% (between 2009 and 2014), resulting in a saving to household budgets of £92 million.
Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, said: “At Christmas it can be tempting to buy – and therefore waste – more food. But with a little preparation people can save money and be kinder to the environment. In Scotland we are working towards a 33% reduction in food waste by 2025. That’s the most ambitious target in Europe, and everyone in Scotland has an important part to play in helping the country achieve that goal.”
Ylva Haglund, Food Waste Campaigns Manager at Zero Waste Scotland, said: “With all the food most of us buy in the run up to Christmas, this can be a difficult time of year to avoid throwing food out. But taking a little bit of time to check your fridge and cupboards and make use of what you already have can save you a lot of money.
“The average household could save £460 a year by putting food to better use – simply by thinking ahead when shopping for meals, freezing extra portions and following recipes to use up any ingredients instead of just buying more.
For inspiration on cutting down food and drink waste this Christmas and saving money, see the top tips below:

Leftover Tips

· Keep your festive leftovers aside to make some quick and easy recipes – great for a head start on Boxing Day dinner.
· To use up any uneaten Christmas meal staples, curries, stews and soups are tasty and hassle-free to make. And who doesn’t love a classic turkey sandwich with leftover cranberry sauce? Easy recipes using leftovers can be found on the Zero Waste Scotland website
· To use up your Christmas pudding, create a really easy and delicious dessert of Christmas pudding ice cream. Just mix custard and whipped cream together then stir in the crumbled Christmas pudding, perhaps adding a little leftover rum, whisky or Baileys, and then freeze.
· Believe it or not, mince pies work really well as a base for another cake. Add in chocolate, orange or nuts, or use in trifle.
Freezing and storing
· Freezing the food you have left from your Christmas feast could save you cash. Freeze as soon as you can – within two days – and eat within three months if possible.
· You can freeze just about anything. Cream (whip it a little beforehand) and cheeses like Stilton freeze really well, just put them in an airtight bag or container and store in the freezer.
· If you have leftover salad or lettuce leaves put a piece of kitchen roll in the bottom of a pot, add the leaves and then seal. This will keep them fresh for much longer than leaving them in the bag.
New Year’s resolutions – how to cut down on food waste next year
· Only attempt a big food shop if you’ve prepared a shopping list to avoid buying food you won’t use.
· Remember to check your cupboards first before you go shopping, as you may already have a lot of the ingredients you need.
· By washing, chopping, bagging and freezing your veg in advance you can save a lot of time, and they will retain the same nutritional value as if you prepared them from fresh.
Anyone wishing to find out more about food waste, including easy and tasty recipes, should visit the Love Food Hate Waste website at Zero Waste Scotland is also encouraging Scots to share their own festive recipes on Twitter and Facebook.

Golden Boost for Perthshire Preserves at The Original World Marmalade Championships

Perthshire Preserves are celebrating after scooping a gold award at the recent World Original Marmalade Awards in Cumbria.

Their orange marmalade with Deanston 12 year old malt whisky impressed a prestigious panel of judges and scored top marks on appearance, colour, consistency, aroma and flavour.

The champion preserve makers, Iain McKenzie and Kate Thornhill also won silver for two other marmalades, lemon, lime and passionfruit and their pink grapefruit and ginger.

The artisan producers faced tough competition from marmalade makers around the world. Over 2,600 jars of marmalade from as far afield as Australia, India, Denmark, Japan, USA and New Zealand, were entered into the competition.

Iain and Kate started Perthshire Preserves in 2010 and since then the popular company has gone on to win a number of prestigious awards including……..

They are familiar faces at farmers markets throughout Scotland and also supply a number of ……hotels and toursit attrctions including Gleneagles Hotel and Cameron House and Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye.

Iain & Kate said they were delighted to win the award: “This is a golden award

for us in more ways than one! We’ve got our preserve pans at the ready to

Cafe St Honoré shortlisted for Food Made Good Awards 2016

Edinburgh restaurant Cafe St Honoré is vying with some of the UK’s best known restaurant and hospitality names to be a winner at the Food Made Good Awards 2016. The awards recognise the unsung heroes of hospitality who go way beyond just serving delicious food.

Cafe St Honoré is on the shortlist for the Scottish Restaurant of the Year in recognition of their commitment to sustainability.

Chef Director Neil Forbes commented: “The whole team at Cafe are so thrilled to be shortlisted in this year’s Food Made Good Awards alongside some wonderfully sustainable places. It’s a real privilege to be shortlisted and I am very much looking forward to the ceremony in London.”

The diversity of eateries on the shortlist for the Food Made Good Awards, run by the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) and sponsored by Nestlé Professional, reflects the hugely positive changes the industry has made in recent years to meet the dining public’s ever increasing appetite for food that’s delicious, ethical and sustainable.

A newly opened East London tapas restaurant, a fish and chip shop on the East coast of Scotland, one of the UK’s most popular high street restaurant groups, a boutique New Forest hotel and canteens at some of the country’s best known universities are just some of the extraordinary range of other eateries to have been shortlisted.

Cafe St Honoré will discover if it has won at the Food Made Good Awards on 22 March at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Hall in London, where SRA President, Raymond Blanc OBE will be presenting the awards.

Mark Linehan, Managing Director of the SRA, said: “Now in their fifth year, albeit with a new name, the Food Made Good Awards recognise the incredible achievements of restaurants and the wider hospitality sector that few other awards do. With a transformation in diners’ attitudes towards food and how it is produced, we believe these awards reward the unsung heroes of hospitality who go way beyond just serving delicious food.”

Scotland’s FoodScape

Scotland’s Foodscape takes place in Edinburgh on April 26 – 27th 2016. This unique event, organised by QMU MSc Gastronomy programme and University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy, Edinburgh will investigate, re-imagine and celebrate the significance of food in Scotland.

By cultivating dialogue between representatives from food industry, governance, education, communications, production, hospitality and the arts, and of course eaters themselves, the event aims to spark a vibrant exploration of what food means in Scotland today. Panelists and speakers represent a broad spectrum of views & expertise and we anticipate that attendees will also contribute diverse perspectives, creating a rare & potentially transformative cross-disciplinary dialogue about food.

Join us to discover and debate topics such as:

· how Scots have created mythical food identities,

· why we should reconnect with our ecology & edible wild,

· what farming might look like in the future,

· and even, whether a foodless future is possible.

Bringing insight & expertise to the dialogue are our panellists:

· Sheila Dillon, BBC Radio 4 Food Programme

· Guy Grieve, The Ethical Shellfish Company

· Shirley Spear, Scottish Food Commission & The 3 Chimneys

· Geoff Tansey, Food Ethics Council & Fabian Communication

Attendees will be treated to a fun, performance filled cocktail hour at the end of each day, as well as a spectacular dinner on Tuesday 26th. The full programme can be viewed on our website.Early-bird ticket prices are available until 18th March. Please visit the website to secure your place at the Symposium, check ourFacebook page for regular updates on performances and content, and don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.

Edinburgh Food Social is an innovative and exciting Social Enterprise, launched recently by the team at EdinburghLarder Cafe and Bistro. This new and much needed initiative aims to bring cooking skills and confidence to people of all ages and backgrounds in the Edinburgh area.

Crowdfunding

Edinburgh Larder owner, Eleanor Cunningham and her team will bring their private sector expertise to the public sector, raising awareness of local and seasonal food. They’re currently crowdfunding to raise capital to buy a fully functioning food truck and if successful, the truck will allow them to deliver demos’ catering and educational packages to people of all ages and backgrounds. Visits to schools and community groups will be funded by profits from a catering operation run from the enterprises food truck.

Commenting on the project, Eleanor said, “It’s a way to bring the Larder’s know how of using local and seasonal food to schools and community groups around town using a mobile kitchen. We want to spread the word of why it’s good to think of food as something that changes from region to region and throughout the seasons.”

Aims

Edinburgh Food Social works towards key aims:

Improving cooking skills

Developing healthy eating habits

Boosting confidence

Enhancing employability

Supporting local food producers

Creating community links

From talking to local communities and schools, the team have found that there is sometimes a real barrier when it comes to using local food. “People think of it as more expensive, even though actually it’s often not” says Eleanor, “and there’s no advice out there as to how to use local food, or how to recognise it, so we thought why not bring what we’ve learned in our kitchens to the public, and help get people into using local food.”

With the crowd funding campaign ending on 17th March, the team are hoping that people will get behind this new project.

Jamie’s Italian Glasgow – Review

When Jamie Oliver brought Jamie’s Italian Restaurant to Glasgow city centre, he was pitching the chain alongside some tough competition. With a strong Italian community and a string of along established Italian restaurants, Glasgow might have seemed an ambitious place for Jamie Oliver to open another. Any other non Italian chef might have struggled for success but bringing his love of Italy and all things Italian to the city has been a great success for Jamie.

An invite to visit along with other Glasgow food writers gave me an opportunity to find out more about just what’s been cooking at Jamie’s Italian Glasgow and to have a chat with Jamie’s Italian UK Executive Chef about the company’s food sourcing policy. Well know for his support of local and British food producers I wanted to know more about the provenance of the ingredients in Jamie’s kitchen.

General Manager Ed explained the ethos at Jamie’s Italian and of course Jamie’s recent policy of an additional charge for fizzy drinks at the restaurant was on everyone’s lips. Whether it will make any difference to customers and attitudes to sugar consumption remains to be seen although Jamie recently said the unofficial 10p levy on sugary drinks in his restaurants is nudging customers toward healthier choices.

Food to share

The food on offer did not disappoint and although we didn’t chose from the menu, all the sharing platters served up included dishes from the current menu. Of course the offerings reflected Jamie’s passion for the Italian way of life; rustic dishes, emphasising his thoughts on ‘good food for everyone’, served to ensure the relaxed conviviality of the Italian table.

Antipasti and Bruschetta

The menu oozes authenticity and is punctuated by traditional Italian Trattoria favourites – starters of bruschetta and anitipasti; Italian pate, tomato and ricotta, cured meats, buffalo mozzarella arancini and seasonal chargrilled vegetables.Delicious and colourful but do leave room for the next course.

Pasta

There’s an inviting selection of pasta and that also includes risotto and gnocchi. Thankfully the ubiquitous meat lasagne and ravioli do not make an appearance.

Mains

Lamb chops Scottadito, Fritto Misto , Crispy Italian-Spiced Duck leg and turkey milanese head up a selection of mains and meat lovers will also be happy to find the ultimate burger, rib eye steak and Italian steak frites.

Kids

The menu is more than suitable for kids and a family sharing a meal could easily chose a range of dishes to share. But, if a children’s menu is needed then a kids menu boasts impeccable credentials, two sizes of meals, little kids and big kids are sure to keep them satisfied. My eye was on the ingredients and the sourcing of the produce and the kids menu deserves top marks. Organic Shetland salmon with crushed new potatoes, green beans and cherry tomatoes; organic Norfolk chicken wrap with rainbow crisp vegetables, organic chicken lollipops and secret seven pasta. All kids meals are served with a fresh shake-me salad and a drink. And, Jamie’s Little Pack of Fun, complete with a packet of seeds is guaranteed to keep the kids occupied.

Was I impressed? The food was lush and finger lickingly good and staff have a sound knowledge about the menu and the provenance of the food. Chain restaurants might not be everyone’s cup of tea and they don’t rank high on my list of places to eat. However, having interrogated Jamie’s Italian UK Executive Chef about the company’s food sourcing policy, it’s fair to say that it deserves to be set apart from those serving up cheap and cheerfully dressed up food.